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Be Kind. Do Good. Love is a Verb.

Friday, March 31, 2017

5 Books I Want to Read...Letters

I keep a wish list on Goodreads called "want to read". Currently, it's up to 2815. Yeah. I also have several stacks of books tucked against walls throughout my house. Each is probably at least 3 feet high of books I haven't read yet. I periodically go through my list and purge it, but it still is not slowing down. Nor are the books that keep appearing on my Kindle. They're all still on my wish list, I just haven't gotten to them yet.

Each month I highlight 5 books I want to read. I don't set out to plan themes, but somehow patterns creep into my viewing.

This month, it's letters. I love letters. I enjoy emails and they're a great way to keep in touch, but there is just something special about handwritten letters. I have letters that my dad wrote to me while I was in college. He often traveled for his job when I was younger and he would send my sisters and me postcards or leave us little notes before he left. I cherish those notes and letters now.

My husband and I had a long-distance courtship because he was in England and I was in America. This was pre-internet so I have cards and letters that are precious to me because of the things we shared with each other.

Handwritten letters are tangible proof that someone is or was thinking about you. We need to write more of them to people.

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The Wedding Letters by Jason Wright

From New York Times bestselling author of The Wednesday Letters comes the completion of one family's journey to survive their past and forge their own future. With no more secrets...

When Noah Cooper bumps into Rachel, it's love at first sight—at least for Noah. Rachel isn't so sure. But Noah's charm pays off, and he introduces his bride-to-be to a special Cooper family tradition—the wedding letters. Family and friends of the happy couple are invited to send letters of advice on love, life, and happiness.

However, when a dark secret from Rachel's past surfaces, will Noah and his parents, Malcolm and Rain, be able to help save the wedding from disaster? And what about the scrapbook of wedding letters that have already been gathered? Could a single letter really provide the answer that will bring Rachel back?

Set against the backdrop of Virginia's Shenandoah Valley, The Wedding Letters will remind you that sometimes, no matter the secrets of years' past, two hearts can still be one. And by the final page, you might just want to create your own book of wedding letters for someone you love.

Béla's Letters by Jeff Ingber

Through personal narrative and letters preserved for decades, Béla’s Letters tells the remarkable story of a large Eastern European family torn apart by war and the Holocaust, the extraordinary circumstances that each family member endures, and the survivors’ struggle to come to terms with the feelings of guilt, hatred, fear, and abandonment that haunt them.

I'll Be Seeing You by Suzanne Hayes and Loretta Nyhan

"I hope this letter gets to you quickly. We are always waiting, aren't we? Perhaps the greatest gift this war has given us is the anticipation..."

It's January 1943 when Rita Vincenzo receives her first letter from Glory Whitehall. Glory is an effervescent young mother, impulsive and free as a bird. Rita is a sensible professor's wife with a love of gardening and a generous, old soul. Glory comes from New England society; Rita lives in Iowa, trying to make ends meet. They have nothing in common except one powerful bond: the men they love are fighting in a war a world away from home.

Brought together by an unlikely twist of fate, Glory and Rita begin a remarkable correspondence. The friendship forged by their letters allows them to survive the loneliness and uncertainty of waiting on the home front, and gives them the courage to face the battles raging in their very own backyards. Connected across the country by the lifeline of the written word, each woman finds her life profoundly altered by the other’s unwavering support.

A collaboration of two authors whose own beautiful story mirrors that on the page, I’ll Be Seeing You is a deeply moving union of style and charm. Filled with unforgettable characters and grace, it is a timeless celebration of friendship and the strength and solidarity of women.

If Heaven had a Mailbox
by Jill Telford

Seventeen years after the death of her mother, a woman thinks about what would happen if she mails a letter to her mother in Heaven. She takes out a pen and starts writing. She doesn't put a stamp. She sends the letter off with only faith that it reaches it's destination. She prays for a response but the response received is the most unbelievable , most incredible, and perhaps the best thing to happen in her life. The response comes with one promise. Not to tell anybody.
This is a short story kicking off the book series: If Heaven had a Mailbox.

The Spice Box Letters by Eve Makis

Katerina inherits a scented, wooden spice box after her grandmother Mariam dies. It contains letters and a diary, written in Armenian. As she pieces together her family story, Katerina learns that Mariam's childhood was shattered by the Armenian tragedy of 1915.

Mariam was exiled from her home in Turkey and separated from her beloved brother, Gabriel, her life marred by grief and the loss of her first love. Dissatisfied and restless, Katerina tries to find resolution in her own life as she completes Mariam's story – on a journey that takes her across Cyprus and then half a world away to New York.

Miracles, it seems, can happen – for those trapped by the past, and for Katerina herself.

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